Cuba and France to sign cooperation agreement on sciences

HAVANA, CUBA.-(ACN) Representatives from Cuba and France will sign a cooperation agreement today to create a joint scientific cooperation program.

The agreement bears the names of Hubert Curien and Carlos J. Finlay, and will be signed at the headquarters of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Danae de Paz Grau, specialist of the Directorate of Trade Policy with Europe of that body, exclusively told ACN.

She added that the program is designed for the implementation of jointly selected research projects, with the aim of strengthening scientific and technological exchanges, in addition to promote the creation of structured and durable high-level and internationally recognized research networks.

This agreement is the result of the will of the two nations to expand and strengthen the French-Cuban scientific cooperation at the service of common interests, she noted.

Hubert Curien (1924-2005) was a French physicist and key figure as president of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and also headed the European Space Agency (ESA).

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to rename in his honor its bilateral scientific exchange program, previously called Integrated Action Programs or Hubert Curien Alliances.

The Cuban sage Carlos Juan Finlay de Barres (1833-1915) discovered that the female Aedes aegypti mosquito was the transmitter of yellow fever and developed an anti-vector plan as the only solution to eradicate that disease in the 19th century.

Although he is considered one of the six most famous microbiologists of the world, he never received the Nobel Prize granted by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and other institutions despite being nominated seven times during the period from 1905 to 1915.

However, in 1975, UNESCO included him among the most outstanding experts in history in that specialty and on May 25, 1981, granted, for the first time, the International Award that bears his name to recognize advances in Microbiology.